


you're not alone, i'm not alone

by Aerora



Category: Tales of Symphonia
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Siblings, you make ONE joke about sheena and lloyd having the same backstory and it comes back to haunt you
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-16
Updated: 2019-07-16
Packaged: 2020-06-29 10:43:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19828501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aerora/pseuds/Aerora
Summary: He had tried to convince himself that it might not be her, that one child's miraculous survival was unlikely enough but two almost impossible, but he can't deny it now, not when she's here in front of him, when Noishe had recognized her right away.





	1. guess i'll follow my feet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you to rar, aly, and ruri for cheerleading and betaing ♥

It isn’t that she’s a bad fighter, exactly.

(She’s out of breath and already in rough shape from fighting her way through the monsters in the maintenance path, but her strikes are fierce and sure, and she’s doing a good job of keeping track of all five adversaries and their positioning, managing to break away from Lloyd’s assault to get a good hit in on Colette more than once - twisted as the circumstances are, Kratos is proud)

But her training had clearly emphasized fights that ended before the target even knew what was going on, and with the element of surprise thoroughly lost, it's five on two. (Or five on three, perhaps, with the way the small creature at her side assists when it thinks it can get away with it.) She’s doing well, but this fight is unlikely to end in her victory, and Kratos thinks she's as aware of that as he is. 

Lloyd darts past the girl's defenses, swinging, and she brings her arm up in a doomed attempt to deflect the sword that catches her square on. There's a sick _crack_ that Kratos knows all too well, and she gasps in pain, dropping her cards as she cradles the injured arm with the other. The guardian she'd summoned tries to float its way over to her to intercept, but it's being waylaid by Colette - and in the meantime, the assassin is defenseless, with a broken arm, about to take a second hit from her brother. 

(He had tried to convince himself that it might not be her, that one child's miraculous survival was unlikely enough but two almost impossible, but he can't deny it now, not when she's here in front of him, when Noishe had recognized her right away. He has no idea who she's working for - there are several options, most of which he dislikes, but there's no time to think them all through - but she is here and alive and unlikely to remain that way if he does nothing, he thinks)

Heartbeat pounding loud enough in his ears to drown out all else, Kratos acts, for once, without thinking about the consequences.

He brings his sword up in front of him to channel his focus, casting the quickest First Aid he can muster. She gasps again, this time sounding relieved rather than pained, and finds the strength to spring back out of reach of Lloyd’s follow-up attack, ducking low to scoop up her cards as she does. Her gaze, though, is on Kratos rather than the enemy in front of her, and her eyes have gone wide. 

Kratos realizes that she's not the only one staring. 

“Why,” she starts, still a little breathless, her freshly healed arm still clasped loosely in front of her. The fox leaps up onto her shoulder, nuzzling her face. “Why did you—”

“Yes, why _did_ you,” says Raine, her tone sharp to hide the note of shock that Kratos can still hear the edges of. “You do know that she’s an enemy, right?” The others have paused, too, even the guardian backing up out of combat range at some unheard order, and now everyone’s full attention is on him.

He can hardly tell the truth (that he had panicked, had been unable to let one sibling unknowingly cut the other down). Nor can he get away with simply not answering, as much as he might like to. Kratos hesitates, finally settling on a believable excuse. “In the heat of battle, sometimes spells do not reach their intended targets,” he says.

Genis snorts, a surprisingly angry sound. Taking his cues from his sister. “Seriously?” he asks. “But that's really hard to do with a healing spell, isn't it, Raine?” He looks to her for confirmation of something he's already sure of. Kratos’s thoughts race, running through every near-miss he's had towards Lloyd - had there been enough of them for the Sages to put it together, with this new slip-up? He’s been careless. Raine nods in response to Genis’s question, lips pursed tightly. She stays silent, though, waiting for Kratos to offer some explanation. 

“Nevertheless, it can happen,” he says, careful. “Even experienced fighters err occasionally. I… apologize.”

“It's okay,” says Colette, quickly. “Better than accidentally hurting someone you didn’t mean to, right? I'm just glad she's alright.”

“Colette, she just tried to _kill_ you,” Genis starts, as the girl breaks in with a furious “I don’t need your pity,” but Raine waves a hand dismissively at the both of them, cutting them off. 

“So long as it doesn't happen again,” she says to Kratos, still frowning, and rights her staff in her hands, settles back into a casting stance as she eyes their assailant.

She does not move to resume the fight, nor does the summoned guardian at her side. Her eyes are still wide, and Kratos hopes that it is out of realization of how close she'd come to serious injury rather than any sense of recognition. He has no idea how he'll handle it, if she does remember him. 

If she does, though, she says nothing about it. She looks between them all for a moment, eyes lingering on Colette, before she nods to herself, swallowing. “I might be outmatched this time,” she says, slowly, “but you better watch out, because I am not giving up until I've completed my mission.” With a quick motion she reaches into a pocket and throws something to the ground; it hisses as it breaks open, filling the area with thick smoke. In an area this large it only lasts a few seconds, but by the time it’s faded she’s disappeared, only her guardian remaining as it spreads its arms out to prevent or delay any chase. It won’t last long, if Kratos remembers correctly; such summons are tied to their user, and will fade quickly if left behind. Noishe, who had been on the sidelines whining since his initial, fruitless attempt to keep Lloyd from fighting with his teeth in the boy’s sleeve, lets out a low _wuff_ , breaking into a gallop as he tears off in the only direction she could reasonably have gone.

“Wh— _hey_!” Lloyd yells desperately, reaching out a hand as if to stop him. “You can't just— _Hey!_ ”

Kratos sighs, grateful at least for his son's ability to shift all attention to himself, even if it hadn't been his intention. “I doubt she intended for Noishe to follow her,” he tells Lloyd. “At any rate, he knows how to find you when you are separated, if the journey so far has been any indication.” Watching him vanish from sight whenever there were monsters fiercer than ladybugs around made his heart twist with guilt - Noishe had not felt fear like that, before - but it lets him point it out without seeming too familiar, at least. Even with his avoidance of monsters, knowing that Noishe is keeping an eye on his daughter is a reassurance.

“I guess,” says Lloyd, unconvinced. He’s pouting, though he would certainly deny it if Kratos brought it up. “I’ve never seen him act like that, though. It was like he didn’t want us to fight her…”

“You heard her,” Kratos says, instead of telling Lloyd exactly why Noishe had hated seeing the two of them fight. The sooner they’re on the move again, the sooner there will be opportunity for more distractions from what he’d done. “She intends to attack the Chosen again in the future. Perhaps you can ask her then. In the meantime, we should continue on if we hope to reach Izoold by sundown.”

Lloyd grumbles, but he doesn’t argue. 


	2. been looking for you but you've gone far away

For all of his friends’ assurances that Noishe would be able to find him again, crossing the ocean without his dog makes Lloyd uneasy. He'd agreed, eventually, when Kratos had pointed out that the assassin would almost definitely make a repeat attempt, and Noishe could just tag along with her. He's not sure why Kratos had been so sure that she would let Noishe follow her all that way, but maybe he'd just said it to get Lloyd to agree. It's not like the assassin had seemed like the kind of person to hurt a dog, though, even if she was trying to kill Colette - and besides, she had a pet of her own, right? So Lloyd might still be less than happy about it, but there's no real reason for him to worry.

There's a House of Salvation between Palmacosta and Hakonesia Peak, but it's a little smaller than they tend to be. Raine had sent him and Colette ahead when it had come into view - to make sure that they had room for five, she said, but Genis had gestured behind her back in the direction of the abandoned building tucked into the nearby foothills and made a face. 

It's a nice afternoon, anyway; Lloyd would rather spend it with Colette than in some old ruin. The walk goes quickly, Colette telling him about the service dog that had been accompanying one of the customers at the academy’s café (“She had a little vest that said she was working!”), and he's wrapped up in the story enough that it takes a second for him to notice the green and white blur rocketing up to the two of them as they approach the House of Salvation. 

“Noishe?” he manages to get out before he rears up to lick Lloyd’s face in greeting, oversized paws balanced on his forearms entirely too cavalierly for how big of a dog he is. “How'd you get here?”

“If he's here, does that mean your friend is here, too?” Colette asks, looking way too cheerful at the prospect.

“She's really not my friend,” Lloyd says. “But… maybe? Ugh, that means we probably shouldn't stay here tonight. I dunno if we should fight her with just the two of us.”

“Let's go in and ask if she's there,” Colette says, and yeah, she definitely ignored at least half of what he just said. “I want to talk to her!”

He has to push Noishe off unceremoniously for Colette to not leave him behind; he whines, but his tail is wagging as he falls into step next to Lloyd

Sure enough, as soon as they step into the main vestibule there she is, in front of the goddess statue. Lloyd can't make out what she's saying, but she's definitely praying. It looks like she's about finished, though, because she turns away from the statue, coming face to face with him and Colette. 

“Ah,” she says, like she didn't expect to run into the girl she tried to assassinate and the guy she stole a dog from, and okay, that's fair, she probably didn't, but. 

He's not sure what he meant to say to her, but what ends up coming out is just, “You kidnapped my dog!”

“What,” she says, and then, “I didn't kidnap anyone!” as she crosses her arms in front of her. “I don't know why Noishe followed me, but it’s not because I made him.”

At her words Noishe leans against Lloyd’s thigh, lets out a low groan that manages to sound kind of pointed. He's pretty expressive when he wants to be, but Lloyd has no idea what he's trying to get across this time. He thinks about it for a moment, anyway. It probably would be pretty hard to make Noishe do anything he didn't want - the way he vanishes around monsters and when it's Raine’s turn to cook are proof of that. “Well, he’s fine, so I guess it's okay,” he says. “You don't have any idea why he followed you?” 

She shakes her head, some of the wind seemingly taken out of her sails by Lloyd’s anger vanishing. “He's your dog, right? You tell me,” she says.

Lloyd shrugs, expressively. “He's always been weird. Anyway, my name's Lloyd. What's yours?” 

She kind of freezes at that, which, okay, not a reaction he expected. “Your name’s Lloyd?” she says, kind of cautious.

Kratos had said it the same way. “Ugh, why does everyone say it like _that_?” he grumbles. “Seriously, is there something wrong with my name?” 

She looks like she's not sure how to respond. “It's - it's nothing,” she gets out. “I just used to know somebody with that name, is all. Forget it.”

Colette’s been quiet since they came in, letting them talk with an expression Lloyd doesn't really recognize, but she pipes up now. “Well, I'm Colette! I'm still getting the hang of being a Chosen, but I'm doing my best to regenerate the world,” she says, sweet as ever.

If the other girl looked like the wind had been taken out of her sails before, she looks downright off balance by now. Colette has that kind of effect on people when she wants to. “I didn't even ask either of you,” she blurts out, red rising in her cheeks.

“Oh, you're right,” Colette says, earnest as ever. “I'm sorry.”

“I-I'm trying to kill you and you apologize to _me_?”

“Well, if we just talk about it, maybe we can work it out differently,” says Colette brightly. “I mean, I don’t even know why you’re trying yet!”

“Are you even _listening_?” she demands. (She’s not. Lloyd can tell.) “Anyway, it—” She takes a breath, trying to regain any semblance of control over the conversation. “Fujibayashi Sheena. Just Sheena,” she follows up with immediately, like she's used to people not knowing what to do with her name

Something’s been bugging Lloyd this whole time, but he hasn't been able to put words to it till now. “Wait,” he breaks in. “How'd you know Noishe’s name?”

“I,” Sheena says, and then stops. Lets out a nervous half laugh. “He just looks like a Noishe,” she says. “Doesn't he?”

“Sheena,” Colette says, her voice somewhere between gentle and unsure, and Lloyd frowns. Something’s up, that’s for sure.

“Maybe - maybe I heard you say it last time,” she says. There’s something like desperation in her tone, something Lloyd can’t identify, and she shifts her weight to one side, then the other, her eyes fixed on the door behind him and Colette. 

“I don’t think I did,” he says, still frowning. 

“I don’t know, okay?” she snaps, a little too loud. It’s a good thing there’s no one on this floor of the House at the moment, with the noise they're making. “I knew that was his name right away, but I don’t—” She cuts herself off, seeming to think better of it, but it doesn’t calm her down any. “Listen, I’m still going to be the one to kill you,” she says in Colette’s direction, “I just—I don’t want to fight here. _Stay,_ Noishe,” she finishes firmly, and his ears and tail droop but he doesn’t move from Lloyd’s side.

“Hey, wait, I just wanna—” Lloyd starts, but she’s already pushing her way past them, out of the temple. The doors close behind her, too loud in the suddenly quiet space.

“That… was weird,” he says, after a long moment. 

Colette nods, eyes on the door, long closed by now. “I think whatever’s going on, she’s confused by it, too,” she says, face curled into that one frown she wears when she doesn’t have an answer to some question and it’s bugging her. “So maybe next time we see her, we shouldn’t press it too hard?”

“Yeah, okay,” he says. Colette’s right - Sheena definitely doesn’t have much more idea than he does of what’s going on - but he kind of wishes she wasn’t. “You’re okay, right, boy?” He directs the last to Noishe, who still looks a little down, but barks in what Lloyd thinks is agreement anyway. He _looks_ fine - his fur’s fluffy like it’s been brushed recently, and it’s not like he’s ever had a hard time feeding himself, if he didn’t like what Lloyd had to offer. Lloyd pats him on the head, and Noishe leans into it, angling his head to solicit ear scritches. “Shameless,” he says, but he does it anyway. He’s never gone without seeing Noishe for more than a day or two before, not as long as he can remember, and the absence had bugged him. It’s nice to bury his fingers in green-and-white fur again.

“At least we know she really is nice,” Colette says, brightly. “I mean, she likes dogs, right?”

“Dogs and trying to kill you,” Lloyd points out, without any real bite to his words. “Oh, we should’ve asked her about that, huh?” 

“There’s always next time,” says Colette. “Oh, I hope it’s soon!”

Lloyd thinks about her reaction to his name, the way she’d stared at the floor like it was the most interesting thing in the room when he’d asked about it. Her obvious discomfort at knowing Noishe’s name but not understanding how. “Yeah, me too,” he says, finally, pulling himself from the place his train of thought wants to lead him with a little difficulty. “Come on, for now let’s just go ask upstairs to see if there’s enough room or if we really are camping in that ruin the Professor dragged Kratos and Genis off to.”


	3. a weight you carry you're trying to let go

It's a coincidence.

“A coincidence,” Sheena insists, not for the first time. She and Corrine have made their way back to the room the people of Luin have let her use, and she's pacing up and down it now, hands on her hips as she picks apart the hope she'd been dumb enough to let herself have.

Really, now that she's thinking about it, a coincidence is the only logical explanation. Lloyd's not that uncommon of a name, and plenty of teenage boys have messy brown hair, no matter what world they're in. The thing with Noishe had been weird, but it's not proof of anything.

“—so he can't be,” she finishes explaining to an unimpressed Corrine, who's perched on the bed, tails waving thoughtfully in unison. “I shouldn't be getting my hopes up. My brother died fourteen years ago, with the rest of my family.”

“But what if he _didn't_ ,” says Corrine, with that strange certainty they get sometimes when she's being evasive about her feelings. Well, she's always been too much of an open book to be a good ninja; it's not surprising that her partner can read her so well. “At least don't rule it out without talking to him first!”

She huffs as she stops pacing and turns to face them, almost a laugh. “I'm trying to kill his friend, remember? I can't exactly walk up to him and ask.”

“If the opportunity comes up, then,” Corrine insists, getting to their feet with a stretch.

“Okay, okay.” She reaches out to them, and they rub against her hand with a lot more fondness than their tone might have implied. “I still don't think anything will come of it, but… I guess you're right. It's worth a shot.”

—

It’s not until much later - not until after Luin has been destroyed, until Sheena has agreed to a truce with the Chosen’s group in order to save the people who’d been so kind to her - that the opportunity _does_ come up.

Honestly, it hadn’t even been on her mind, for once. Their half-formed plans for getting into Asgard’s ranch had been more important, but it had already been late afternoon when they’d found her, and by the time she’d been healed and they’d searched the town for anyone else who’d escaped the Desians, it had been too late to set out. No one had liked the prospect of trying to hole up in one of the less-ruined buildings, so they’d settled on a campsite a little ways into the forest outside Luin, where the smoke from its destruction hadn’t reached.

Lloyd takes it on himself to lighten the mood as they eat, launching into a story of a ghost haunting the mossy rubble of the long-abandoned stone buildings they’d passed on the way here. Sheena’s more focused on her food than the story, but the younger members of the group are hanging off of his words, eyes wide. He’s a good storyteller, she notes, starting to get drawn into it despite herself; he puts just the right amount of drama into it, drops his voice at serious moments and gestures large at ones meant to be scary. Genis actually jumps, spooked enough to kick a log and send sparks flying, and the group’s healer - Raine, that’s her name - says “Lloyd Irving, that’s _enough_ ,” sharply, and Sheena chokes on her food, loud enough to attract everyone’s attention.

“Whoa, careful,” Lloyd says, leaning over to pat her on the back, and Colette leans in with a worried-sounding “Are you okay?” Sheena coughs, twisting around to stare at Lloyd instead.

“Did you say Lloyd _Irving_?” she manages, the second she can speak, gaze darting between him and Raine like she’s not sure which one of them she wants an answer from. She— she can’t have misheard, right?

“That’s my name,” says Lloyd, with a laugh that sounds kind of uncomfortable. “Why, is something wrong with it?”

She lets out a long breath. “Would you excuse me for a second?” she asks, and before Lloyd or anyone else can answer she pulls herself to her feet and leaves, Corrine hurrying behind her with a soft jingle of bells and a hushed " _Sheena_ —"

She doesn't stop until she reaches the edge of the clearing they'd made camp in, crouching down closer to Corrine's height. Her wounds from earlier have been healed, but enough soreness remains that she winces at the movement anyway.

“That's your brother's name, isn't it?” Corrine prompts when it becomes clear she's not going to find the words in a hurry, as if they hadn't seen her little shrine for her family's souls tucked away in a corner of Mizuho, and Sheena swears that they look almost smug.

“…I didn't think it was actually possible,” she admits, after a moment. “How do I— what do I even say to him?”

“Just explain it like you did to me,” Corrine says, and nuzzles up against her leg. Sheena smiles, soft, and strokes their fur once. “You can do it, Sheena!”

“Here I go, I guess,” she says, aiming for ‘confident’ and landing somewhere around ‘terrified.’ With that, she gets to her feet, makes her way back towards the campfire. The others have gotten back to their meals, but she thinks she catches a whispered conversation being quickly cut off as she returns. She swallows, trying not to lose her nerve, and fixes what she hopes is a welcoming smile onto her face as she looks to Lloyd. (To her _brother_.) “Can I ask you something?” she says, and then adds quickly, “In private. Just- just for a minute.”

He looks around at the others before he answers. Gauging whether or not this is a trap of some kind, maybe. “…Alright, I guess,” he says, getting up from his spot by the fire. “Where—?”

“Just over here's fine,” she says, gestures vaguely towards the western edge of the clearing as she starts to walk. He follows, thankfully, and once they're far enough away from the others she stops, turning back to face him.

“So… what's up?” he asks, jamming a thumb into his suspenders as he watches her try to gather her thoughts.

“Okay, this is gonna sound weird,” she starts, and looks down and away for just a moment, searching for strength, “but what's your family like?”

Lloyd blinks at her, and she’s pretty sure he wasn’t expecting her to open with that. “Are you asking me ‘cause of my last name?” he says. “Because I don't have the same last name as my dad. I’m adopted.”

“Oh,” she says, a little faint. It was probably too much to hope for that their parents would still be alive, too. Shakes her head. “No, um— your birth family?”

“I was pretty young, so I don't remember much,” he says, pulls a face that Sheena can’t read in the last remnants of daylight. “Seriously, why is this—”

“ _Please_ ,” she says, and her expression softens. “Just— humor me for a second, okay? It's important, I think.” Maybe it’s the pleading note in her voice, but he listens.

“Alright, alright,” he says, rubbing the back of his neck. There’s a pause before he continues. “Uh. The Desians killed my mom for her exsphere,” and he gestures to it, like she’s never seen an exsphere before. “I didn’t know what really happened until just before I left Iselia. I don’t remember enough about either of my parents to say much, but. Dad told me that my mom mentioned my older sister, before she died.” The last sentence is all in a rush, Lloyd’s eyes going wide as he nearly trips over the words, like maybe he’s starting to think the same thing that she is. He shifts his weight to his other foot, continues, cautiously: “Why do you ask?”

For the second time tonight, Sheena feels kind of like a monster had just barreled into her hard enough to knock the breath from her lungs. She shakes her head hard, trying to clear it, tries to keep her tone even. “I don’t remember a lot about my family, either,” she tells him, “but I had a little brother, a couple of years younger than me. How old are you, Lloyd?”

“Seventeen,” he says, right away. “But that’s—”

She keeps going, cuts him off even as her voice drops down into something much quieter. It’s not wrong, she’s sure, not for her _brother_ to know, but the Mizuho part of her (smaller than it should be) flinches at what she’s about to say anyway. "Where I'm from, we don't use our real names. Only your immediate family is supposed to know it. But before I came to live there—" She twists her hands together in front of her. "—My last name was _Irving_." 

With that said, she falls silent. What else is there to say? She just watches the way his face shifts as he puts it all together.

“I really don't remember much about when I was a kid," he says, effort in every word, and she thinks her face falls a little. “But…” He laughs, something tiny and shaky and wondering. "Is that why Noishe followed you?"

“I— I think so,” she says, suddenly uncertain. “I kept thinking something about him was familiar, but even after you said your name was Lloyd I thought it was just,” she bites her lip, “a coincidence. But…”

“But it wasn’t,” Lloyd finishes, and she nods, helpless. 

There’s a moment where she doesn’t know what to say and it seems like he doesn’t either, just taking it in, quiet, the only motion from either of them Lloyd fiddling with the hilt of one of his swords. Distantly Sheena realizes that for all she’s been aware of them, the others could have been listening in the whole time, but right now she can’t bring herself to care.

“Is it okay if I,” she starts, gets cut off by Lloyd throwing his arms around her in a hug. It's tight enough to knock the wind out of her again, but in a much nicer way than before.

“Sorry, if you what? I kind of cut you off there,” he says, awkward. This should be weird for her, too, she thinks, when they’ve been separated for so long that they might as well be strangers, when her memories of him are all distant and faded with time, but it just feels right somehow. Like something she’d gotten so used to missing that she’d stopped noticing, until suddenly it was back.

“Nah, you beat me to it,” she says, a surge of fondness in her chest. She stands up just a little bit taller so she can rest her chin on his shoulder, lets herself be in the moment. “I can't believe you're alive,” she says, with a soft disbelieving little laugh. “All these years, I thought…”

“I can’t believe _you’re_ alive,” he says, and his voice shakes a little, enough that Sheena squeezes him reassuringly. “Dad said he looked, but he couldn’t find any trace of you.”

“I… grew up a long way from here,” she says, frowning a little as she turns over just _how_ far in her head. “I don’t really remember it, either, but I guess someone else must have found me first.” She shakes her head; thinking about the night their parents died is the last thing she wants to do right now, not when Lloyd is _here_ , alive and safe and hugging her like he never wants to let go. 

He does pull away, though, sooner than she might have liked but longer than she’s used to any contact lasting, so it’s fine. “Let’s go tell the others!” he says, reaches for her hand and turns back towards the camp in one smooth motion, then pauses. “Oh— that’s okay, right?”

“Yeah, it is,” she says, a smile growing on her face to match his own. (Of course it is; right now, Sheena wants nothing more than for the world to know that she has her brother back.) “You sure your friends will take it alright, though? I mean, I’ve been trying to kill you guys.”

Lloyd shrugs that off, not for the first time, in a way that’s always struck Sheena as incredibly cocky or incredibly stupid. “That was before either of us knew,” he says. “And besides, you’re not planning on attacking me, right?” he asks, twists to look at her.

“No,” she says, slow. “But—”

“Then it’ll be fine,” he says, grin brighter than ever. “C’mon!”

Well. She can’t argue with that kind of certainty, she thinks, letting him tug her back towards the others. “Okay, okay. But more importantly, who said you could be taller than me, huh?” she demands brightly. “I’m the older one, here!”


	4. you know i don't want to be free

“What do you mean, Kratos is _gone_?” Genis demands, the morning after the destruction of Asgard’s ranch.

“Aw man, seriously?” Lloyd complains. Kratos had said that he could help him and Sheena learn to pull off a really cool joint attack the next time they trained - well, that hadn’t been his words exactly, but that was the gist of them. He’s been looking forward to it ever since.

“Should we… wait for him to come back?” says Sheena, with an uncertain glance Colette's way. “I mean, maybe something just came up.”

“Are you sure that’s not just what _you_ want?” asks Genis, who hadn’t been in a good mood even before they’d realized their number was one short.

“Of course I am,” Sheena snaps, always ready to rise to a challenge, even one issued by a twelve-year-old. “I don’t want Colette to—” 

“ _Enough_ ,” says Raine, but Sheena’s already stopped herself, one hand slapped over her mouth in mortification. “Who was the last one to see Kratos?”

“I talked to him before he left, when I was on watch,” Colette pipes up, shooting a little smile Sheena’s way to show that she’s not upset. “All he said was that he had something he needed to see to, but that he’d be back! So I think Sheena’s right. It won’t hurt anything for us to stay in the area for a day or two, right?”

“I wouldn’t mind helping out a little here,” Lloyd puts in. “There’s a couple buildings that are almost still in one piece, and the villagers are going to need somewhere to stay while they’re rebuilding. It’s weird, though… What do you think Kratos had to do all of a sudden?”

“He’s been acting like something was up since Sheena joined us,” Genis says, with a frown. “But who knows with that guy?”

Sheena frowns at that, letting her hand fall to her side. “Has he?”

“Yeah, but you joined us right after we saw what happened to Luin, so I guess it could be either one,” says Lloyd. “You think he used to live there? I mean…” He laughs uncomfortably, looks at the ground like it’s suddenly the only thing that can hold his interest. “I didn’t really feel like myself either, after what happened in Iselia.”

“That could be,” says Raine, trying to reach a decision before someone gets too far off-topic and ruins all their chances of making one. “Either way, if he gave his word that he’d be back, a few days should be fine. If our only other party member who can heal is gone, we’d need to backtrack to Hima to restock on gels, at the least, and that would take even longer.” 

(In the end, it doesn’t even take anywhere near that long; by mid-afternoon, Kratos has made a reappearance, casual as anything, like the closest town isn’t a good two and a half days away. He apologizes for the delay, but no matter how much Lloyd and Genis pester him about it, he doesn’t offer any explanation more detailed than the one he gave Colette.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading!


End file.
